Here’s one figure you may want to remember from today’s announced $17 billion combination of life-science company Sigma-Aldrich Corp. with German giant Merck KGaA — $130 million.

That’s what Sigma-Aldrich
/quotes/zigman/77951/delayed/quotes/zigman/77951/lastsaleSIAL paid in domestic income taxes last year on the $657 million it reported in pretax income for 2013. It amounts to just under 20% of the St. Louis-based company’s income, and presumably that figure will be dropping once the company’s headquarters is relocated to Germany.

You may not be aware that corporations traditionally have been able to deduct up to $1 million in salaries for some of its top executives from their tax bills, and nearly limitless amounts in performance packages due to loopholes.

“It’s really very open-ended,” said Sarah Anderson, director of the Global Economy Project at Washington think tank Institute for Policy Studies. “As a result, there isn’t a real meaningful limit on what companies can deduct for executive pay.”

Growing concerns over infinitesimal bits of substances that are finding their way into everyday food and cosmetic products via nanotechnology is setting off alarm bells among public health watchdogs, who worry what ingredients may be creeping into the culinary process.

Those concerns are raising the eyebrows of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which has been exploring this burgeoning realm, but the agency appears reluctant to push the panic button. FDA officials recently issued broad guidelines on nanotechnology, but didn’t go so far as to establish regulatory definitions of what it is, saying the science hasn’t progressed to the point where it can be fully understood.

Those who ponder the inevitable probably already know that heart disease is the most common causes of death in most states, and cancer in a few northern climes. After that, it’s either stroke, respiratory diseases or accidents.

But what are the maladies least expected yet have a disproportionately high chance of striking in your state?

Little more than two months after enrollment closed for Obamacare, the Health and Human Services Department is reporting record discrepancies have been found in roughly one-fourth of the applications for subsidies, or more than 2.1 million people.

The flaws could result in repayment demands from consumers, or possibly loss of coverage, though the government says it is working to resolve as many of the cases as it can.

Britain’s Daily Telegraph reports a study from the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Cognitive Aging and Cognitive Epidemiology that says if you learn a second language — even in adulthood — it can stave off dementia for at least a few years.

Now before you scoff and wonder if that study was sponsored by Rosetta Stone, consider the extent of the methodology that the university used.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has some disturbing news about noroviruses that we all thought lived mostly on cruise ships. It turns out that 70% of norovirus outbreaks come all types of food workers, and it’s really the type of food that can result in sudden illness, more than the setting.

CDC officials said in a missive issued Wednesday that it’s more ready-to-eat foods that are the problem, such as raw fruits and leafy vegetables, as well as oysters if not cooked above 140 degrees. Those foods can get contaminated if those preparing them use their bare hands and have been sick recently. That can even extend to baked goods that have already been cooked then handled by someone who is infected.

Making the rounds on social media this week was the story of a California man who, afflicted with more than two dozen tumors, had been denied health coverage from his insurer after initially determining there weren’t enough facts to show his treatment was medically necessary.

Jeffrey Rusch, who lives about 70 miles north San Francisco in the town of Camp Meeker, was told May 13 he had 20 tumors in his brain, several in his lung, liver and other regions throughout his body. He was ordered to go to the hospital, where a pint of fluid was removed from his lungs and he was given emergency chemotherapy.

Reported measles cases in the U.S. have reached a 20-year high, the Centers for Disease Control said Thursday. A total of 288 cases were reported to the CDC from Jan. 1 to May 23.

The current increase in measles cases is being driven by unvaccinated people, primarily U.S. residents, who got measles in other countries, brought the virus back to the United States and spread to others in communities where many people are not vaccinated,” Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunizations and Respiratory Diseases, said in a statement.

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